Settling Disputes
by inthenightside
Summary: a fill from the masskink meme: AU Renegade!Shep versus Saren during Spectre training
1. Chapter 1

okay, this is just a fill from the masskink meme. request was:

...  
This anon is terribly intrigued by the idea of Saren sent to evaluate Shep instead of Nihlus.

What I'd like to see is humanity-first-Shepard and I-hate-humans-Saren forced to endure each other. Saren trying to get rid of her the same way he did with Anderson, only to discover that she cares about collateral damage as much as he does, which equals zero. And of course, at some point they end up having rough, I-hate-you-fuck-me sex. :p Whether it's a one-night stand or they find themselves in a weird love-hate relationship is up to anon. I only ask that it be consensual, as they'd be an even match in this. Also, snark is a must. :D

...

I'm know I'm not much of a writer, but I'm posting this on the off chance someone gets some amusement out of it.

* * *

Alliance Commander Shepard, N7, was aware that being a Spectre-candidate in training was to be considered a great honour. After all, she had been told as much both by her own superiors, various Alliance diplomats and paper pushers and an innumerable parade of various aliens. Repeatedly. It had to do with the fact that she was the first human to be considered for this, of course, so the political interest was enormous.  
She grimaced. Everyone going on in great length on about great honour obviously hadn't met the Spectre who was supposed to train and observe her. Granted, his reputation said that he was the best, period, but what everyone failed to take into account was that said Spectre was an arrogant, bad tempered, sociopathic turian who was feared for his ruthlessness. None of that was the problem. He also hated humans with a passion. That, however, was.  
He hadn't been able to refuse the assignment any more than she had, and that hadn't improved his already rotten temper any.  
Shepard wasn't happy by any definition of the word, either, but since the prospect of becoming a Spectre suited her, and there was no way around this, she was less vocal in expressing her displeasure. For now.

It was far from settled, though. It had been almost four months now and a steady stream of combat assignments. He was insulting her constantly, and she wasn't holding back on her opinions, either, on the general principle that he wouldn't ever respect anyone who quietly let themselves be insulted. Plus, she'd be damned before backing down before anyone, let alone a spiky alien, regardless of how nasty a piece of work he happened to be. She'd even told him this right on their first meeting, although in a bit more polite wording. She wasn't scared of him, and she'd lived through worse than whatever he could come up with. The jury was still out on whether that tactic worked or not, but it certainly didn't make for harmonious teamwork.

She threw an evil look at the back of the Spectre in question. They were working their way through an electronics factory owned by some large intergalactic company. The employees seemed to be salarians mainly, with some humans thrown in. Shepard wasn't certain what exactly they produced here nor did she really care, but it had to be something that was valuable enough to someone else to hire a team of mercenaries to get the prototypes of, as opposed to the much more common, nonviolent method of discreet industrial espionage. Odds were it was something illegal, which made the whole situation vaguely more interesting.  
They had several teams of mercs scattered through the factory, and a good number of confused civilians thrown into the mix.  
Saren had offered her to split up, which she had declined. It made no sense to her at all to divide their forces, and besides that, what good was she supposed to do alone? From a tactical point of view it was an absurd idea, and she wondered why he'd even suggested it. She wondered even more why he appeared to be slightly surprised at her refusal.

They neutralised one team without any real trouble, but the second one they encountered had had the bright idea to take some hostages from the factory workers, five salarians, one human.  
Why they thought that that would make her spare them was beyond her, but it annoyed her on a general principle, with the result that the leader of that team had a bullet through his head before he was even finished with his demands. When the last of the mercs had been down, Shepard had noted with satisfaction that they'd only lost two of the hostages. The rest were alive and could take care of themselves. Acceptable losses.

She turned to the turian to find him staring at her with odd interest. "What?" she asked as they were turning to leave the scene of battle.

Saren seemed almost amused but didn't reply.

She looked at him in irritation. "Did you expect me to negotiate with them?"

He shook his spiked head. "Not at all. I was just reminded of a human soldier I briefly worked with some years back, and reflecting on the differences."

He didn't share any further information, so she shrugged. "We are individuals, you know." She engaged her combat scanner. "Now, where's that last group of them?"

The last merc team had had enough time and warning to try and set an ambush for them. They had holed up in a large storage room stacked high with crates, providing far too much cover for them for Shepard's liking. She usually was in favour of taking out enemies from a distance, but this wasn't possible here, so she checked her kinetic shields and her assault rifle and went in.  
She drew their fire immediately, counting four of them- one batarian, three humans - and had only time to fire at one briefly before her shields flickered out and she had dive to cover. A flash of grey in her peripheral vision let her know that the Spectre was moving, and she came up again, firing at the same target as him. The batarian merc went down noisily.  
One down, three to go.  
The bad thing was that the three remaining were trying to rush them now, forcing the both of them into cover as they advanced in a passable display of teamwork.  
She could see Saren a few paces over crouching behind another row of crates. He stood suddenly, tossing them a grenade and went into cover again to the sound of an explosion and various screams. Shepard grimaced. She hated when he did that; he considered safety margins a polite suggestion that could be ignored freely.  
No matter; they both came out of cover and went for the mercs.  
The grenade had given them something to think about, but all three were still standing, their shields having taken most of the damage. Saren went straight at the first of them, too fast for the human to react as a black gloved talon closed around his neck. He screamed briefly, but the sound cut off almost immediately, and Shepard considered that one done for and slammed the butt of her rifle into the face of the second, who was too slow to react, his attention apparently on what Saren did to his teammate somewhere to her right. As a follow-up, she put the rifle's muzzle flat against his midsection, pulled the trigger briefly and made sure that one wouldn't get up again. As he started to crumple, she tried to turn around to deal with the last one, but Saren chose that precise moment to throw the limp form of the third merc at the one she'd just shot, and the falling merc staggered against her, trapping her rifle and hindering her movement for a moment.

That was time enough for the other one to yank her over, keeping her between Saren and himself while holding his own gun to her head.  
It wasn't even remotely funny, but the irony of it made her roll her eyes, even as she let go of her rifle.

She was treated to the view of Saren looking slightly surprised and then darkly amused, damn him.  
The turian shook his head slightly in amazement."I honestly don't think anyone has ever tried that on me. You don't know who I am, do you?"

"I don't care! Don't come any closer" the idiot behind her stammered. "If you do I swear I will kill her."

Saren's cybernetic eyes glittered in a very disturbing manner. "Do you have any idea of how tempting that prospect is?" he asked, his voice a particular unpleasant purr.

Shepard narrowed her eyes, glared at him, then decided that it wasn't really wise to rely on the turian's good sense not to set the merc off just for the hell of it. She turned very slightly, to test the situation, but the merc's attention was fully on Saren, frightened as he was.  
Well, he had good reason to be. Too bad he didn't have the sense to be afraid of her, too.

She spun around fully, in the same fluid motion ducking down, hitting her armoured lower arm hard against the hand holding the gun and knocking it aside, while she flicked her wrist in the right way to release her small knife from its wrist sheath.  
She unerringly found a gap in the merc's armour that made a nice target for the knife, and as he doubled over in surprise and pain, Saren calmly fired his pistol, clearing away most of his head.

Shepard cursed as blood splattered on her. She stepped away from the body, again glaring at the turian. "That was unnecessary. I had it under control."

"Really?" It was beyond her how one could put that much insult into one neutral word. "You are aware that I am required to at least make a reasonable effort to keep you alive."

"Could have fooled me, considering it was you who put me into that situation in the first place."

He didn't even try to deny it. "I'm also expected to evaluate your skills. I wanted to see how you improvise."

Shepard snorted and bent down to retrieve her knife. "Whatever. Now, I think that was the last of them. What's next?"

The Spectre seemed to consider the question for a second.  
"Omega, I think" he finally replied.

"Oh, great."


	2. Chapter 2

The music - or what passed for it in the Afterlife - was decidedly too loud, and Shepard was getting quite tired of it. They were waiting for some contact of Saren's, who so far had failed to appear.  
Saren showed no signs of getting ready to leave, however, so she was stuck here with him, which didn't improve her mood any. Neither did the clientele, really.  
Shepard snorted in disapproval at the sight of a turian wandering off with an asari, with obvious intentions.

Saren followed her gaze and gave a dry chuckle. "How typically human. Inter-species relationships still bother you? Then again, what else but that provincial attitude can I expect from a species like yours."

As ever that tone didn't fail to raise her hackles.  
"How typically turian to go by first impressions, and wrong ones at that. I was merely disappointed by that woman's lack of standards."

"Really."

Shepard would probably have left it at that, save for the tone of that comment of his. She really, really hated this smugness of his.  
Very well, then.  
She gave him an openly appraising look, just this side of insulting, letting him know just how unimpressed she was with the view, then shrugged. "Nope. Can't say I see the appeal. I'll take your word for it that it's physically possible, but I doubt she's doing that for pleasure."

Saren stared at her, and she thought she had surprised him. Then he growled dismissively. "You once again showcase your ignorance. But I will admit you can't be expected to know better. I think it very unlikely any turian would pursue any sort of intimate relations with one of your kind." His tone was sardonic. "We tend to have better taste than that. Besides, you humans are too...fragile."

Shepard blinked, then openly laughed at that. "Fragile? Do you want to imply that you play that rough?" She laughed again. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Figures that your sort compensates lack of skill with physical force. And you have the gall to call us primitive."  
She noted with satisfaction that he'd gotten still in that way he always did if she scored a hit in verbal sparring with him. Of course, it also meant that he was preparing for a counterstrike. It always did. He was competitive like that, and it was one of the few qualities in him that she somewhat respected.  
She leaned back, relaxing in a way that was an open challenge.

Saren looked at her in a manner that she had so far tagged as thoughtful - turian faces were hard to read for starters, and with his messed-up face and cybernetics he didn't have much expression left anyway, but she was good at observing, and she was learning.  
The fact that he didn't strike back immediately wasn't a good sign, because it usually meant he was taking time to formulate a battle plan, and he was good at tactics. Still, she refused to be worried.

The Spectre finally shrugged, and continued in his normal, professional tone. "I think we're done here for today. We'll try this again tomorrow. If my contact doesn't show up until then, we'll just go looking for him."  
His tone of voice didn't bode well for the contact in question. Shepard approved.

She nodded, but watched him warily out of narrowed eyes.  
It looked like he was going to let that comment slide, and this wasn't in character with him. More likely, the response was just postponed. He did that sometimes.


	3. Chapter 3

They had just taken out a small outpost of Blue Sun mercenaries that had done some thing or another to annoy her instructor sufficiently to come down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks.  
She had to admit, however reluctantly, that he was good at what he did.  
Not that she had done badly on this one. It was a bit hard to tell without someone impartial keeping score, but by her reckoning they were about even on the kill count.

She was good at this, too. It was simple, really, just a test of skill, hers against enemy scumbags. Even easier, they hadn't really needed any of them for questioning. It simplified everything so much, if one didn't have to remember about taking prisoners. If it moved, and wasn't by any chance a turian Spectre in grey armour, it was an enemy and could be shot. If it happened to be a turian Spectre in grey armour, on the other hand, it probably still was an enemy, but that contest would have to wait for another time. The Alliance military wouldn't have been too happy with that, they never had been. They never seemed to get that, that fancy rules of engagement were fine and honourable in theory, but reality was much more simple. The one with less rules to worry about survives.  
But Saren, damned alien that he was, he got it just fine. It was why he'd stayed alive as long as he had.  
There were targets, and sometime there was collateral damage that, while being regrettable, couldn't be avoided. In the end it didn't matter as long as the result was the one correct one.

Another thing they had in common. In fact, she'd come to find that there were aspects where they were rather alike. Now there was a disturbing thought.

Still, her mood was too good right now to dwell on that. She approached Saren with a triumphant grin, but he just growled and turned away, back through corridors leading to the docking bay where their ship was parked.  
She caught up with him easily.

"So, what's next?"

He shrugged, not in a talkative mood, but she wasn't easily deterred.

"Whereever we go, try to choose something with a decent bar. I need a drink."

Saren just snarled, but she had never known when to stop. "And maybe we can find some nice asari to improve your mood, too." And then she couldn't resist. "If we can find a kinky one who doesn't mind turians, of course."  
He stopped and stared at her, but right now she was beyond caution, and she just grinned.

The Spectre shook his head in contempt. "Still stupid, and unlikely to learn." he commented to no one in particular.

Shepard snorted in equal contempt. The comment about humans being fragile was still rankling her. "I bet it's all just big talk with your sort. Us humans, we're tougher than you think. It's what I told you at the beginning of this...I can handle whatever you dish out. You don't scare me." Then her brain caught up with what she'd been saying and the context it was said in, and she needed all her concentration to keep a blank expression as he gave her a slightly incredulous look.

"Don't I? Then, as hard to believe as it may be, I must have severely underestimated your lack of sense." She had expected him to make some really biting remark, but instead he spun around towards her, impossibly fast, grabbed her collar and shoved her against the corridor wall, hard. That was new. He'd never before tried physical threat with her.  
"Maybe I should arrange for a demonstration to show you exactly how rough we play."

She blinked at a too-close view of his mostly cybernetic face. Anyone else trying this would have found themselves with her combat knife in some tender spot by now, but even she was willing to admit that wouldn't be wise under the circumstances. Yet.  
Instead, she tried the other option, talking her way out of situations. She met his eyes squarely, gave him a lopsided grin and asked "Oh? Are you volunteering, then?"

His mandibles twitched ever so slightly, and she had to suppress a laugh, even as she was offended by his expression of disgust. He wasn't, of course, and he hadn't even considered that option. He wouldn't willingly touch a human any more than she'd let a turian touch her.  
Which meant that she'd won that round, once he backed down with whatever means he'd come up with to save face.

Maybe she hadn't kept her thoughts from showing on her face well enough, because what was visible of his expression turned calculating. A shiver of unease ran through her as she realised she had misjudged and this wasn't over yet.

"Maybe I am." he replied, that alarming purr back in his voice.

If she were smart, she'd call this off, back down and lose some points. And her self-respect. Not a chance.  
"I doubt you'd know what to with a human." she shot back, carelessly.

"I doubt you could keep up with a turian." he replied.

They stared at each other, the challenge now spoken. Shepard kept herself carefully still, not breaking eye contact. This wasn't what she had had in mind, not at all, but she'd be damned if she'd even show any hesitation. Hell with it. She'd never been one to retreat or walk away from a challenge. She had a vague idea what she was getting into. After that conversation in Afterlife where the topic had come up, she'd done some research, though the purpose had been to get more material to provoke him with. In the process of that, she had learned that the extranet could be a frightening place indeed.  
While the prospect wasn't that appealing, she'd certainly lived through worse. After all, this wasn't about any sort of attraction or desire, and pleasure was only a secondary objective. This was pure dominance behaviour, something she understood all too well. She might as well play this just the same as she did everything else - full speed ahead, no compromises and devil take the hindmost.

"I must point out, you're not off to a good start here." she quipped, indicating he was still holding her by the neck and trapping her. "Not that I have any high expectations, mind, but you're sort of proving my point here."

His reaction was a short laugh, and that was as new as disturbing. She'd never heard that sound from him before.  
"Last chance to back out, human." he purred, but it wasn't the tone he used just before he was going to do something unpleasant, messy and ultimately fatal to some unfortunate soul. This was new, too.

"I could say the same, turian." she replied in as close an approximation of his tone as she could muster.

He laughed again, the tone of that dropping to something deeper, more feral. And not altogether unpleasant.

"Now, release me." Shepard challenged in an even, almost bored tone.

"Not yet, I think." Despite that, he loosened his grip on her collar, only to hook a talon into one of the seals of her armour, loosening the shoulder plate.

"Very subtle." she stated.

He didn't take offence. "Subtle", he purred, "would be lost on you. And that's not what this is about, is it?"

Maybe he had a point there, she thought, allowing him to strip her armour off. No sense in letting him have all the advantage, though, so she tugged at his armour as well, taking a bit longer with the unfamiliar locking mechanism. If anything, he seemed slightly amused by what she was doing. His smug attitude irked her, but for now she kept her peace. It was always better to know the battlefield before charging in. He ran his hands down her front, splaying his taloned fingers over her breasts and stroking down to her thighs, then unhurriedly moving upwards again. The fabric of her undersuit was thin, catching on the textured pads of his gloves. A sudden heat ran through her. Well, that wasn't surprising. A good fight always put her in the mood, it was just a reaction to making it alive through a life-threatening situation. It was just something hardwired into the basic human setup, no deeper meaning to it.  
Didn't change the fact that it felt good, though.  
Another rub at her breasts that made her lean into the touch, and he started peeling away at her undersuit, detaching the sections with the same careless indifference he'd shown with her armour. Before she could try the same with him, he shrugged out of his own undersuit, and she got a quick view of his body, pale plates, unfamiliar, alien lines and angles, and a good share of scars. Strange, but neither attractive nor repulsive.

He stepped close, took her shoulders firmly and turned her around, then resumed his roaming over her body. He'd lost his gloves along with his clothes, and the sensation of his hands against her skin was strange but far from unpleasant. He didn't have scales on his palms, but the skin there was textured into segments, and combined with the fact of his higher body temperature and the coolness of the corridor, it really felt like his hands were tracing fiery trails over her body.  
Shepard even leaned back into him, appreciative of the warmth. It was only what he wanted her to do, after all, making her instinctively seek contact and relax her guard. Especially if she couldn't see him to remind her just how alien he was. She suppressed a smile even as he rubbed over one responsive nipple, leaning against her in the same move ever so slightly to disturb her equilibrium, and she automatically braced herself with her arms against the wall.

'Subtle' is lost on me, is it?

Very well. She could see what he was doing, but that didn't mean it didn't work. For now she'd play along, which meant she'd have to stay a good bit more passive than was her nature. On the up side, she could enjoy this freely. For now.

One hand went down her torso again, coming to rest between her legs, the other took hold her hip, steadying her.

"Careful with the claws" she warned, not bothering to hide the fact that her breath was coming quicker. In truth, she wasn't worried about his talons. Hurting her now would run contrary to his objective, and he had more self-control than that.

"Don't worry." he said, his voice low and close to her ear. His fingers started stroking against her, slowly, slid along her opening and up again, fingers parting just to run past her clit, then down to start again.  
It served very well to keep her very interested while just not touching where she needed him to. He might hate humans, but that didn't mean that he was in any way ignorant about their anatomy. She gave it a bit of time, but patience had never been her strong suit.  
"You sure you wouldn't want any hints? Maybe a map?" she challenged.

Saren actually chuckled. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I can find my own way." He drew his fingers up again, then suddenly ran one finger directly over her clit, drawing a gasp from her as she involuntarily leaned against him, spreading her legs, giving him better access.

"I take it you're enjoying yourself?" His tone was actually teasing, which she wouldn't have believed possible. It surprised her enough to try and look back over her shoulder to look at him, but he nipped at the back of her neck and rubbed his fingers against her once more, and that made her reconsider the action as she went rigid for a moment with pleasure.  
"I'll just count that as a yes, then."

Shepard felt him shift slightly, then his fingers spread her folds as his tip came to rest against her, teasing her open. Waiting for her reaction, or maybe trying to make her beg. Not much chance of the latter, she thought.  
She actually growled. "Well? Do you require a written invitation?"

"Interesting idea, but I think we can forego the formalities."

He pushed forward suddenly, entering her in one deep stroke that drew a strangled moan from her despite her resolve. There were certainly parts on his body where she fully approved of strange ridges and plates. Too bad that said parts came only as a package deal including the whole bad-tempered, human-hating turian Spectre.  
A slow move against her, precisely timed for maximum effect, made her gasp, and he curled the fingers he was stroking her with, grazing against her with his knuckles, where his skin was covered with scales. That made her arch her back, suddenly desperate for more. The turian gave a sound that was deep and satisfied and had no real human equivalent, and set an agonisingly slow pace. Close, very close.  
Her perception narrowed down to the feel of him inside her, and the slow roughness of his scales on her clit. And all the time she was aware that he wasn't involved in what he did beyond the need to prove a point to her. There was little doubt he had something nasty in mind, when he was was done proving said point.  
Despite knowing that for certain, her knees were getting weak, and she let him support her weight.

"Hmmm. Well, I think now would be a good time..." He thrust deep, suddenly, then stilled and ran his knuckles over her clit, which was more than enough. She cried out softly as climax hit her like some physical force, the release so intense she was sure she saw black spots in her vision.

"So predictable." His sneer cut through the pleasant haze in her mind, cleared it instantly. Shepard's eyes narrowed, but she kept herself relaxed, bonelessly leaning against the wall. She made no effort to hide her still harsh breathing. The grip on her side loosened, talons trailing down her sides almost playfully as she sensed him taking a step back, separating from her.  
So, that was how he intended to play it...

"That was far too easy. I wasn't expecting much in the way of pleasure out of this, but I had at least thought you would be more of a challenge." The careless, disinterested tone was guaranteed to raise her hackles, the insult calculated perfectly for maximum effect, the delivery flawless. She had to admit he knew how to get to her. Only, it wasn't always that easy.

And that's where you are wrong, Spectre.

At the speed she usually reserved for combat, she spun around and launched herself at him full force.  
Superior reflexes or not, it was the last thing he'd expected, and she succeeded in tackling him to the ground. They slammed down hard, the impact bringing her down on him, and she managed to cling tight, wrapping her legs around his hips. They went into a roll, each struggling for dominance, but he went rigid as she increased the pressure of her legs just so, and she ended up straddling him. His length pressed against her firmly, and she took the opportunity to lift herself slightly, angle her hips and slide onto him, which drew a strange deep sound from him. She looked down at a plated face with far too many teeth on display right now. He snarled, a sound that in another context would be terrifying, but she couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she leaned over him.  
"Better think again, then."

Saren could have tossed her off, being physically a lot stronger than her. There was no question about that. However it appeared he wasn't quite able to decide at the moment what he wanted. Shepard smirked again. She could certainly help him in that decision. He'd done his research, obviously, but so had she. His snarl of rage turned into a deep growl as she found exactly the right spots on that mostly-scaly body to make him move in very interesting and exciting ways. Every part of him, that was.  
And the fact that she could do that was just as much of a turn-on as the feel of him in her. It wasn't exactly surrender, but she wouldn't have expected that anyway when he wrapped his taloned hands around her waist, holding her tight.  
Oh yes, she could enjoy this.  
She ground against him, hard, and he pushed back. There were some ridges in his plates that rubbed against her in exactly the right way, and it was all she could do not to arch her back in pleasure. Instead she looked at him in challenge. "Might as well do this properly, don't you think?" Her voice was maybe not as steady as she would have liked, but it had the desired effect anyway.  
He growled again, then started thrusting against her in earnest. This time it wasn't the precise, almost clinical performance he'd given before. She bit back a moan. Yes, that was more like it.  
She might have said that aloud, too, because he kicked his speed up another notch, and she matched him move for move, holding on for dear life. He'd given up that ridiculous pretense of controlled gentleness, and that was more than all right with her. This was just another contest at endurance, and Shepard was determined to win it, regardless of however close she herself might be to breaking limit.  
So she'd have to cheat a bit at it. She leaned over, digging her nails into the back of his head, just beneath the uneven spikes. Saren growled, throwing his head back instinctively, leaning into the touch. The move exposed his throat, and she darted in and pressed her lips to the side of his neck. His skin was softer there, but still much tougher than a human's, she noted as she bit down hard. Her human teeth were too blunt to do any damage. Fortunately, that wasn't required here, the gesture being symbolic only, but it was very effective.  
He screamed, a sound very unlike his normal voice, arching against her, pushing in as deep as possible, his talons reflexively tensing around her waist, then came with a shudder that shook his whole frame.

Gotcha, she thought, triumph curving her lips into a real smile as she let go of his neck. With distant amusement she noted that some things translated disturbingly well between different species, like his slack-jawed, slightly dazed expression right now. She was close too, and when his talons clenched and broke skin, and the shocks running through his body turned into delicious movements of now-slickened plates against her clit, that mix of pleasure and pain combined with the certainty that she'd won this round send her over the edge hard. She was able to swallow the whimper that had been lodged in her throat, but the intensity of it had her grip his bony collar, digging her nails in as she shuddered against him. All the while, she was almost painfully aware of his piercing gaze upon her face, but she never turned away or closed her eyes.

Still panting, she all but collapsed on him, keeping herself propped up on her elbows against his scarred chestplates.

He growled and shifted slightly, separating from her, but to her mild surprise he didn't throw her off immediately. Which was just as well, now that she was coming down again from that particular high, she felt the minor pain of a lot of slight scrapes, some fresh bruises and what probably was a pulled muscle in her back from tackling him. In addition to that, there was a set of not very deep puncture marks on her waist. The thought of the latter made the corner of her mouth curl up very slightly in amusement. That, he hadn't done on purpose, and while he probably couldn't care less about any damage to her, the fact that she'd made him lose control like that would gnaw at him. She might bear some marks, but she had left some marks of her own on his pride, and she knew from her own experience that injuries to one's pride healed a lot slower than a couple of scratches.  
On the whole, it had been worth it, and unexpectedly fun. More than it should have, really.  
She held his unreadable gaze for a few moments, then rolled off him and sat up.  
He did the same, immediately, still regarding her without any expression that she could make sense of. She didn't even try, instead focussing on retrieving and putting on her clothing and gear. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him do the same.

Once she was properly attired again, she gave the turian a faint grin. He scoffed. "If you tell anyone about this..."

Shepard's grin turned fierce. "Oh, no, I regard this as a private contest."

The Spectre shrugged, then turned and started on the short walk to their ship again,

She fell in step beside him, then gave in to temptation. "So, let's hear the final score."

The turian gave her a sideways look, but didn't reply. Of course, that had never deterred her. "Still think I'm fragile?"

"Still think I don't know how to handle a human?" he retorted.

They stared at each other, until Shepard shook her head a bit rueful."I suppose no on both counts?" she offered, and at his nod continued. "You still think I'm that predictable?"

The Spectre snorted. "No, I'll have to amend that statement. In fact, I will state that given how much effort you put into your attempts to make me lose my temper, the only explanation is that there has to be something wrong with your mind, and it's impossible to accurately predict what an individual in that mental state will do. So, no, you are not predictable. Just insane." She laughed. "Fair enough."

As they reached the ship, another realisation struck her. "Damn. That means it was a tie, wasn't it."

Saren tapped against the codepad, causing the airlock to slide open. He seemed to be ignoring her, but suddenly stopped and looked at her. "And the problem with that is that it has to be either complete defeat or victory for you. There can't be anything in between."

It wasn't a question, but she nodded in agreement anyway.

He shook his head in an impatient way.

"It's the same with you, isn't it?" Shepard challenged.

Instead of a snide remark, that got her a rather thoughtful look. "If it absolutely has to be decided one way or another, maybe I'll offer you a rematch, some time."

She looked back at him considering. "If it can't be settled any other way, maybe I'll take it."  
She held his gaze until he snorted and turned away, climbing through the airlock.  
She followed with a slight smile of her own. Well now. Her Spectre training had just become a bit more interesting. 


End file.
